Illustrations

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Mary Josephine ( Josie) Hannon Fitzgerald, Rose’s mother, c. 1889.

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John Francis (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald, Rose’s father, c. 1894.

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Rose Fitzgerald (on right) with her siblings, Agnes and Thomas, c. 1900.

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Rose, second from right, and her classmates from Dorchester High School, c. 1906.

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Rose christening the Bunker Hill, Philadelphia, March 26, 1907.

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Mayor John F. Fitzgerald (with hat over heart) and Rose (to his left), at Boston parade, c. 1910.

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Rose and Joseph P. ( Joe) Kennedy on their wedding day, Boston, October 7, 1914.

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Rose’s first three children (left to right) Rosemary, John ( Jack), and Joseph ( Joe) Jr., Nantasket, c. 1922.

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Rose’s card file with her nine children’s medical and religious milestones.

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(Left to right) Joe Sr., Rose, Joe Jr., Jack, Buddy (the dog), Rosemary, Kathleen (Kick), Eunice, Patricia, Robert, and Jean, Hyannis Port, September 4, 1931. Rose was three months pregnant with her ninth and last child, Edward (Teddy).

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Rose’s only visit to California during Joe’s Hollywood career as producer, c. 1927.

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(Left to right) Jack’s friend, K. LeMoyne (Lem) Billings, Kiko (the family governess), and Jack, Palm Beach, spring 1936.

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(Left to right) Kick, Rose, Rosemary, US Embassy Residence, London, May 11, 1938. Rose keeps an eye on Rosemary before they all leave for Buckingham Palace.

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Rose oversees a family portrait on the Cannes beach, summer 1938.

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Rose, Jack, and Eunice on Mount Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, spring 1941.

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Last known formal photo of Rosemary (far left) before her lobotomy. Bobby, Pat, Jean, Teddy, and Rose are all dressed in white for the launching of the USS President Polk, June 29, 1941.

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Joe Jr. escorts Kick to her wedding, London, May 6, 1944.

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Rose accepts the Navy Cross for Joe Jr. posthumously, June 27, 1945.

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Rose, at far left on stage, campaigns for Jack, at microphone, in his first campaign, the 1946 Democratic primary for Massachusetts’s Eleventh District, US House of Representatives.

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Jack, a newly elected congressman, poses with former congressman John F. Fitzgerald, his grandfather and namesake. Rose carefully captioned the photo.

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Bobby with his first child, Kathleen Hartington Kennedy, Josie Fitzgerald, and Rose, beaming over four generations, Hyannis Port, 1951.

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Jack and Jean (back row); Pat and Rose (seated); Eunice models JFK skirt on televised tea for Jack’s 1952 US Senate campaign.

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Pope Pius XII and Rose at the Vatican in the 1950s.

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Rose campaigning for Jack, date unknown.

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Rose with Jack and Lyndon Johnson on stage at the Democratic Convention, Los Angeles, July 15, 1960.

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Joe greets Rose at the airport as she arrives for the Christmas holidays, 1960.

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Rose with President Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and Lady Bird Johnson at Inaugural Ball, January 20, 1961.

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Pablo Casals kisses Jackie Kennedy’s hand after his White House concert, as Rose applauds, November 13, 1961.

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Rose subs for the First Lady at a state dinner for Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie (to President Kennedy’s right), White House, September 23, 1963.

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Rose with twenty-one of her grandchildren, Hyannis Port, August 3, 1963.

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Rose receives an honorary degree from Sister Rosemary Pfaff, president of St. Joseph’s College (to Rose’s left), Emmitsburg, MD, October 5, 1963.

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Rose at President Kennedy’s Arlington gravesite, with Pat and Eunice (to her right); Bobby, Jackie, and Teddy (to her left), for JFK’s interment, November 25, 1963.

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Rose chats with artist Marc Chagall on the Riviera, September 1964.

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At the groundbreaking for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose lifts a spade of dirt with son Bobby (to her left) and Yeshiva University President Samuel Belkin (to her right), New York, May 2, 1966.

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Rose appears on the Mike Douglas Show with its host, Philadelphia, July 8, 1967. © Michael Leshnov.

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Rose and Teddy at Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Skating Rink, Hyannis, c. November 1967.

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Rose campaigning for Bobby in Indiana’s Democratic presidential primary, Michigan City, IN, April 27, 1968. A fan inscribed the photo to Mrs. Kennedy, “a great mother.”

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To a national TV audience, Rose reads her brief eulogy for Bobby, with Teddy (to her right) and Joe (to her left), Hyannis Port, June 10, 1968.

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Curtseying to Emperor Haile Selassie on her July 1970 visit with him in Ethiopia, where Rose celebrated her eightieth birthday.

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In Teddy’s 1970 reelection campaign for Senate, Rose and his wife Joan join him to portray a stable family after his 1969 Chappaquiddick accident.

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Rose is greeted at the Westbrook, Maine, Special Olympics, May 1971.

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With uncharacteristic animation, Rose stumps for Teddy in the 1980 Iowa presidential caucuses, which he would lose to incumbent President Jimmy Carter.

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Rose waves to a crowd on her Hyannis Port lawn with (left to right) Eunice, Jean, and Teddy, celebrating her ninety-second birthday and campaigning for his 1982 Senate reelection.